Fact: Some seventy years ago, Louis Armstrong was bigger than the Beatles. Fact: Louis' record sales provided the seed money for some of today's great communications empires. Fact: Pops' startling trumpet prowess and ingratiating vocals transformed the phrasing of every instrumentalist and vocalist on earth--and these are the sessions that started it all. Having performed as the second cornet with spiritual father Joe "King" Oliver's legendary New Orleans band, he turned everybody's head in New York during his stint with Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra in 1924. Then at wife Lil Hardin's insistence, he returned to Chicago in 1925, which led to the first of his supersessions for the Okeh label--fronting an all-star band assembled just for the studio. Even amid the traditional New Orleans polyphony and ensemble work of "Gut Bucket Blues," the sheer power of Armstrong's cornet pulls along the rest of the band like a locomotive (and in setting the infectious closing riff, he not only anticipates the swing era but Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts"). By the time we get to the 1926 sessions, featuring his innovative "scat singing" on "Heebie Jeebies" and his dynamic stop-time phrases on "Cornet Chop Suey," Louis Armstrong is well on his way to transforming jazz into a soloist's art, and himself into the most influential musician of the 20th century. --Chip Stern Amazon.com essential recording
 |  | Classic - An Essential Buy |  |
In 1925, Louis Armstrong defined and created the world of jazz by transforming traditional Dixieland into a free-flowing, soloists art.
This is the fist volume of the Hot Fives series that started it all. Each song serves as its own vehicle for Armstrong's genius. Some of the arrangements are startling and original. "Yes! I'm in the Barrel" begins with an abrupt, jerky piano rhythm before launching into a full polyphonic Dixieland swing. "Get Bucket Blues" is deliciously raunchy when it breaks form to capture Pops hooting and edging his bandmates on..."Whip that thing Ms Lil! Ohhh whip it good! Kick that piano ya! Blow it Kid Ory! Blow it! You really can blow that thing boy! Oh do that clarinet boy!" Pops completely changes the traditional concept of music as a static creation, implying in the listener's imagination that music can be a living, moving organism, a performance which is dependent upon its players' energy and vigor. "Heebie Jeebies" is an uproarious classic. Beginning with a simple, nursery-rhyme piano riff, Armstrong's gritty trumpet breaks the ice and drives the group into a hot swing, bailing out the rediculous lines "I got the heebies I mean the jeebies", even forgets what he's saying and practically invents scatting on the spot by garbling the English language into all sorts of weird illiterate syllables and syncopations. "Muskrat Ramble" is another winner, an excellent, moving swing which puts the Original Dixieland Jazz Band to shame. "I'm Gonna Gitcha" is shamelessly excellent. The awkward "King of the Zulus" is my personal favorite, starting with a dicey stop-start piano rhythm, then emerging into a trumpety swamp, then unpredictably stopping completely to disintegrate into snippets of a nonsensical Jamaican ramble, and when you think it should end there, an engagingly wild and raunchy Satchmo brings it back to life, and an exhilerating middle-eastern banjo run finishes it all off.
In the end it doesn't matter which song is your favorite, the classic set is joyous fun the whole way through.
December 19, 2008 | | Great recordings destroyed. | |
Whoever remastered this collection obviously thought that old records should sound OLD, and by george, that's what he gave us. Everything here sounds like it's played on great-grandma's windup Victrola as heard over a telephone circa 1910. It's totally inexcusable--all these sides were recorded electrically, and so should sound like *music*. As presented here, you can't even hear half of what was going on.
I was about to toss this CD, but I decided to see if it was salvageable. Seventy minutes later, I finished remastering it to sound like real people playing real instruments, and finally I can hear why Louis Armstrong and the Hot Fives set the jazz world on fire.
Too bad Columbia Records couldn't be bothered to spend an extra hour and 10 minutes on producing this CD.
September 7, 2008THESE ARE THE ORIGINAL RECORDINGS THAT LOUIS ARMSTRONG MADE FRONTING HIS OWN BAND AND THEY ARE QUITE SIMPLY, THE STARTING POINT FOR EVERYTHING ELSE IN JAZZ THAT WAS TO FOLLOW. ARMSTRONG WAS SUCH A POWERFUL PERFORMER, HAD SUCH GREAT CHOPS, THAT HE TURNED AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC ON ITS' EAR WHEN THESE RECORDINGS WERE MADE. SO MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT SATCHMO AND HIS INFLUENCE ON MUSIC, HE WAS PROBABLY THE 20TH CENTURY'S MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL MUSICIAN AND THAT'S SAYING A LOT.
November 12, 2007Get over the bad sound quality and you're going to love this album. This is Louis at his best. I prefer his earlier works to his later ones because they seem more lively, but that is just my opinion. Even if you like later works better, there's still no reason you shouldn't buy this album. Its got the first good scat recording on "Heebie Jeebies", which is a riot to listen to, and a host of other hilarious songs. Not a very serious, heartfelt album, but that's why I love it. If you have a preconceived image of Louie as singing only loving soft jazz songs such as "What a Wonderful World", I suggest you listen to this album, because it has nothing like that. What it does have is wild dance songs such as "Oriental Strut" and one crazy tune with Jamaican voice-overs, "King of the Zulus". A truly wonderful album and an essential for all lovers of early jazz.
February 27, 2003| | | The Crown Prince Grows Up | |
This superb set captures Armstrong at a critical point in his artistic evolution,-having served his apprenticeship in King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in 1923,he first lit a fire at the trumpet chair in Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra the following year and then he played and recorded with small combos with the likes of Sidney Bechet and Clarence Williams and now in 1925 he leads his own combo of all-stars.There is nothing negative to be said about this CD,unless you wish to quibble over the sound,which is low-fi compared to more recent releases in box sets but I much prefer the warmer,rounder tone of this CD;in a similar vein,there is nothing negative to say about the MUSIC on this CD either - this is prime classic jazz at its very finest,from the polyphonic brilliance of "My Heart" to the darting playfulness of "Big Fat Ma And Skinny Pa" and "King Of The Zulus",here was a major musical genius just beginning to stretch his legs.An essential buy,darn the sound quality its perfectly great sounding on my player!
December 29, 2001More reviews at Amazon.com ...
(14 reviews)